What is biting my feet and ankles on our back patio? New Orleans

Factual Questions
1

Seems like every time I go out back and sit on my covered patio, something is getting me.

I’ll sit out there barefoot with my feet on the concrete, just for a few minutes, and maybe just a foot or two from the lawn.

It feels like 20 or more mini-mosquito bites, but only a few are visible. Most of the others I can feel as tiny bumps, and they all itch like crazy.

I don’t think it’s anything like scabies, because they’ve never migrated up past my feet.

Chiggers don’t really make sense either.

Any ideas?

2

ETA (missed my 5 minute window)…

Neighbors have dogs on three sides, but I don’t think it’s fleas, either.

At 44, I still have near perfect eyesight. I had a very comprehensive exam (opthamologist checking everything because of diabetes) within the last year and all aspects were perfect. Still 20/20. She said (colloquially) that I scored an A+.

I get the bites more often at night, but during the day as well, and I never see any bugs biting me.

3

Ceratopogonidae

4

“biting midges also known as no-see-ums” seems to be pretty descriptive :slight_smile:

5

Are there the red itchy spots afterwards like their are from mosquito bites?

6

Sounds like fleas to me. Some stores sell flea spray to spray directly on a dog. I spray that on my legs and the problem goes away.

7

When I was stationed in the Bahamas, we had what we called “sand fleas”. If there was no breeze or not much of one, they’d be very annoying.

8

Around here the little biting critters you can’t see are called chiggers I once cleared out a flower patch that had gone to weed. Next day it looked like I had some terrible skin disease. You can scratch until you bleed.

9

What Baker said. I take a shower as soon as I finish mowing the yard, so I can wash them off before they have a chance to latch on. Otherwise I wind up with chigger bites all up and down my legs.

10

If you go out in the pitch black darkness of night, it could be a grue. Always have your battery powered lantern with you.

11

i used to mow the lawn early morning … just as the sun was waking up … the grass being satured with dew … inevitably, i would acquire the same affliction (chiggers) … happened every year. two years ago, i started mowing the lawn in the heat of late afternoon … no more affliction. [central texas]

12

During recruit training in a class on field sanitation, one of the guys objected to the use of the word “chigger”. From then on, he was known as Private Chigro.

13

If you murder one, do you have to give it a funeral with full military honors?